Secret Truths
by The Lovely K-chan
Summary: It's back! My story about L and K an OC  is finally back after all this time! L and K meet and almost immediatly become friends, but with B lurking, will they be able to say alive and see their friendship grow? Or will they be killed by B and company?LxOC
1. Prologue

**Disclaimer: I don't own Death Note! (only disclaimer I'm using this whole story)**

It seemed like a double homicide and robbery at first glance, but anyone who knew where to look would have known that there was more to it than that. The ordinary detectives would not have been able to find a link between the victims. There was in fact an obvious link between the families if you knew anything about them.

K knew the link. K knew that she was stuck in the center of the whole ordeal, too, along with B. She was smart enough to flee when it was her parents, if you could even call them that, when their house was broken into.

K hadn't remembered the greater details. She had sent the man that killed her so-called parents to prison for kidnapping of a ten-year-old boy. That was why she knew the link. The man, the boy, and her, they were all part of the link between the two murders. Nobody knew K's parents had a child because they hid her from the rest of the world. And that man managed to figure out how.

She searched her mind for the details. It was important to this one case that she and L were solving together. She was going to figure out the link between this whole thing and all of the people that were tied together with transparent links.

She cursed B to the depths of hell for making this puzzle and then vanishing without a trace, or any clues that could tell her where he was. L cursed B as well for making a big mess while he was still a successor of L. He tarnished the reputation of L! He was the first criminal to escape L, and he would hopefully be the last. It was not something that was easy, mind you. It was near impossible! K was finding anything she could about the deaths of her parents and the other family, who shall remain unnamed for the time being, just to keep it interesting.

K and L sighed at the same time when they could not find any evidence after three days of searching, non-stop. This was going to be a long case…


	2. Chapter One

_***Note***_

**K=7 years old**

**L=12 years old**

K was working in her attic bedroom, although it could hardly be called that. There were mystery novels everywhere. And the bed was really no more than a sleeping bag and a pillow. K knew that she was being mistreated and abused, but there was nothing she could do about it.

"K! There's a new case for you to work on. We need the money so we can pay for the house! Hurry the hell up and solve it or you won't get dinner tonight!" He 'mother' yelled through the little pipeline that was set up shortly after K was born.

"Understood," K replied in her usual monotone. K turned on the system on the desk in the attic and started working immediately, not a sound was made. K knew that things were horrid, but they could be worse. She could be a normal child with 'issues' as her caretakers put it.

Hours later she cracked the case and started working on her other ones that took more time than she expected. This criminal was practically untraceable and it was causing K to miss eating lunch, the bottom line at her 'home' was: you don't solve the case by mealtime, you don't get that meal. She heard her 'father' trudging up the stairs after arriving home from work. He walked into her room, and immediately K knew what she had to do.

She walked over to him, and he slapped her across the face. She knew it would be worse if she didn't walk over there. He slapped her again because he didn't get a reaction, but she still didn't show one. She was unable to show them, the things she has been through had prevented her to react to things normally.

"Damn evil spawn. You're lucky that your mother and I decided to keep you!" He snarled and kicked K to the ground. _Yes, I'm so lucky that I am trapped in this hell,_ she thought sarcastically.

"Yes, father," she replied in a monotone. He growled in frustration and kicked her again, but she didn't even wince. She just stared at him with blank blue eyes, no emotion swimming in them. After a few more blows he decided she wasn't worth the energy, he stalked out of the room.

K stood up and looked in the cracked mirror. There were more bruises on her porcelain face and her arms looked dreadful from yesterday's beating. She sighed and got back to work on the case. She solved it after a few minutes, which meant she would get dinner tonight.

Her mother came up the stairs with a little plastic tray that had a piece of dry toast and a small glass of watered down milk. She thanked her mother quietly and picked at it while she worked. Her mother stayed for a minute and then left, telling K to leave the tray outside the door when she was done.

K finished her meal a little later, and she put her tray outside as instructed. She pulled up a case file and her eyes widened at the location of the criminal at the time. He knew where she was, and she had to find out how long she had until he showed up to hurt her, or worse. Although, dying didn't bother her. It was part of life.

A while later K heard someone forcing his or her way into her house. A few seconds later she heard yelling and gunshots. She took that as a cue to get ready to run for her life.

L was thinking about the new case that K was solving, and he realized that it was much too difficult for even him to solve. The main reason being that not all the information was given to them. L was following the case and he noticed that there were many gaps in the evidence.

"Watari, were things missing on the crime scene?" L asked quietly. Watari nodded and showed L the scene photographs. "It would be helpful if we knew what they were, and if K would actually go to a crime scene sometimes."

"You don't go to the scenes of your cases either, L." Watari (Wammy) pointed out. L grunted and turned to his computer where he was currently working on the case on his own. "You could work on this with K if it would help you."

"If I could even get in contact with them. The problem is, K is more elusive than I am, and I cannot find their contact number anywhere. I think it is because K is working alone in a place where they cannot be found so easily," L mused, his eyebrows scrunching up ever so slightly. It would take a trained eye to notice the almost microscopic change in his expression. Wammy sighed and left L to his thoughts.

It took K about a second and a half to react to the sound of gunshots inside of her household. As soon as she could move she deleted all data from her computer and put the case file into a shredder and burn it. She wiped her computer completely, leaving no trace of anything. She was an expert at technology, anyways.

"Where is K?" A man asked menacingly to whoever didn't get killed by the shot. K snuck out the door and started looking for a way out.

"Upstairs," her mother said. As soon as she said she heard another shot fired. The man started searching the upstairs area and he almost stumbled upon K's hiding place. As soon as K determined that he was upstairs she ran downstairs as quietly as possible and ran into the woods behind her house. The man must have seen her from a window because she heard a gunshot and saw the ground beside her explode. She ran deeper and deeper until she determined that she was safe.

She ran for hours and hours without knowing if the man was following her or not. She stopped after she figured that she was safe enough to walk for a while. She took the time to look at her surroundings and she realized she was lost. This was bad. K looked at the direction of her house and saw smoke rising. She continued wandering the thick forest.

Wammy was looking at the news and he saw that there was a murder in a home that belonged to a wealthy family. The house was burnt down to the ground and there was an investigation going on. Wammy had a very bad feeling about this murder case, but he didn't know if it was just because he was always working with L on these things.

A few days later K stumbled upon a private drive and she tried to walk up to it, but she collapsed. Everything went black.

**(I can't leave it here…)**

Wammy was going out to pick up some supplies that the children needed right away. He grabbed the keys to his Bentley and drove down the large private drive. He opened the gate with the special bar code on his ID and wound down the road. He stopped suddenly when there was a girl collapsed on the ground.

Watari went up to her and had a look of horror when he saw the bruises on her pale face and the black eye. Not only that, but she looked extremely pale and Wammy could see all the bones on the visible skin.

He put her in his car and drove right to the medical wing of the Orphanage/boarding School. Dr. Walkner came out to see why Wammy was parked there.

"Mr. Wammy, what are you doing here?" Dr. Stephen Walkner asked in surprise.

"I found this girl in the street. All of her vitals are steady, I think she may just be dehydrated and exhausted, and suffering malnutrition." Wammy explained quickly. The doctor nodded and they got the girl onto a stretcher and into an examination room.

Several hours later they found out she was suffering from exhaustion, dehydration, and malnutrition. K was hooked up to many machines to monitor her condition and cameras were placed inside of her room in case she was a threat to Wammy's

A few hours after K was admitted, L needed to get his semi-annual physical. He walked through the echoing halls of Wammy's Orphanage silently, keeping his eyes on the ground. Matt was on his way back to his classes after his physical when he ran into L and sent them both sprawling on the hard wooden floor.

"Oh man, L! I'm really sorry!" Matt apologized. "Are you alright?"

"I'm perfectly fine, thank you Matt. Are you injured?" L asked. Matt shook his head and L nodded.

"Well, I must be going. Study hard."

"Okay, L. See you later," Matt called as he was walking away towards his Russian class.

L walked into the medical wing, only to find that Dr. Walkner wasn't there. L sighed almost inaudibly. _The least he could do is be on time, I don't have all day_, L thought angrily. He waited for a few minutes before Dr. Walkner _finally_ showed up.

"Sorry I'm late, L. There's a new patient and I wanted to make sure that she is still sedated," The doctor explained. L nodded.

"Alright. Let's get this done so I can try and solve K's case faster than them, although no progress has been made on their part," L said. The doctor nodded and did the physical. L was still uncomfortable with people touching him, but he knew that this was for his health's sake.

After the physical L asked to see the new patient. The doctor agreed and L followed him silently, thinking about many things at once. L walked into the girl's room and gasped inaudibly when he saw her. She was stunning! Her long brown hair framed her pale elfish face. He frowned when he saw the bruise on her cheek and the black eye. He frowned deeper when he saw how pale she was. The doctor left him in the room and L just sat there, watching her. He was curious about her, and that was not unusual, him being curious after she said a few words was rare, though. He doubted that he would be interested in conversation with her after a few sentences because people didn't interest him; they were usually unintelligent beings that took his valuable time.

Wammy walked into the room about ten minutes after L had settled in. He watched L observe her, even while she was sleeping.

"L, she won't be awake for another few hours," Wammy said, breaking the silence.

"I know," L replied. L wanted to meet the girl and determine her intentions before anybody else did, it was just part of who he was. He was childish, possessive, and he loved games and puzzles.

"Alright, I guess missing one day won't ruin your grades," Wammy said. L nodded slightly to acknowledge he had heard him. Wammy trudged out of the room and went to his and Roger's office. Roger looked up as he heard the door close.

"So, you found a girl?" He asked. Wammy nodded. "What are you going to do when she awakes?"

"It depends on what the doctor decides to do. He needs to see that she isn't a danger to all of us before we really do anything," Wammy explained. Roger nodded in agreement and they got back to their individual work.

L sat with the girl until she woke up. He saw her eyes flutter and he gasped when he saw they were sky blue, and seemingly empty and soulless. It was like looking at L's eyes. L shuddered slightly.

"Hello, I am Laurent," L said, not wanting to give her his identity. She didn't make any gesture to acknowledge that he said anything. She just held a blank look in her eyes. It wasn't that she didn't understand, she didn't know how to reply. She has hardly ever talked to anyone in her life.

"…"Silence. He got an idea to speak with her in a different language.

"**Hello. My name is Laurent. What is your name?"** He asked in French. Still nothing. He tried in many different languages before giving up.

The doctor walked in and saw that she was awake. "Has she said anything?" The doctor asked. L shook his head sadly. The doctor frowned; maybe she was mute or deaf.

"I tried every language I know. Nothing," L said, frowning a little. The doctor looked concerned.

"Maybe she is a comatose," The doctor suggested. K scoffed internally, still no emotions showing.

"Unlikely, since I appear to be talking right now," K said, her voice devoid of emotion as usual. L shuddered at her unemotional voice.

"Why is it that you did not respond when I was speaking to you earlier?" L asked, a little frustrated.

"I didn't know what to say. I have only spoken to two people directly in my entire life, to tell you the truth," she replied evenly. Her eyes still curiously blank.

"Well, what's your name?" L asked.

"I don't know if I can trust you. You haven't told me yours. I know when you are lying," she said. He looked shocked. She didn't even show her amusement, but L could see a tiny little spark of it in her eyes. "But, fine. What have I got to lose except for the pathetic thing known as my life? I am K," she replied. L's mouth opened slightly, and K took in that fact.

"You are lying," L replied.

"Maybe. Maybe not, I don't really see the importance of my name since it has brought nothing but trouble for me in the seven years of my life," she said quietly. L looked at her with pity. She didn't have the chance to be a child, at all. Just like him, it made him feel strange in a way that he couldn't describe.

"Well, I am L." L said. K's eyes held amusement, but it was hard to see.

"Finally, Some truth here. So tell me L, why do you insist on solving my new case?" She asked. "Or at least trying," she corrected.

"Well, you haven't been doing a good job on it. You suddenly disappear for three or four days and end up here," L said quietly, his eyes searching hers for anything. He found nothing in her sky blue eyes.

"Well, I had to leave my residence," she said. L raised an eyebrow slightly.

"And why, pray tell, is that?" He asked.

"Oh, no reason. You know, the normal getting beaten until I can barely stand. I got sick of it really," She said quietly, no emotion in her voice or expression. L had a feeling that she was hiding things, but he knew he couldn't figure them out because she was so unemotional and professional about everything. He was just going to have to get her to trust him. Too bad he didn't know how hard it would be for her to trust anyone, especially after everything that has happened to her...


	3. Chapter Two

K had been at Wammy's for all of two days when Mello stumbled into her room. He was stalking L again to see what was so important that he wasn't spending any time with anyone.

"Who the hell are you?" Mello asked when he walked into the room. K looked up from her notebook, which Quillish (Watari/Wammy) had gotten for her so that she could write down whatever she wanted to. K had asked for it, so it wasn't like they were getting her something for absolutely no reason at all.

"My name isn't important for you to know," she stated coolly. Mello growled in frustration, he didn't like her already. He thought she was too much like Near personality wise.

"I asked you for your name. You'd better tell me it, or else," Mello threatened. She didn't even look scared, which was unusual for anyone that Mello threatened.

"Or else what? There's really nothing you can do to me that I haven't been through before. So go ahead, I'm used to threats and injury," she said robotically. Mello looked stunned for a second, and then masked the shock with indifference.

"I bet I could find something that would scare you, everyone is afraid of something," Mello said smugly. K acknowledged that this boy wasn't as big of an idiot as he seemed to be on the surface.

"I doubt it. You can try, but you know nothing about me, and you'll probably never figure it out. Honestly, you aren't smart enough to find out who I am, and I doubt anyone in this wing of the school will tell you. Don't bother asking L either," she replied, letting a little smirk appear on her face. It didn't reach her eyes though; her eyes were still empty blue orbs.

"You know L?" Mello practically screamed.

"Yes, she knows L," L replied. Mello spun around and looked at L with awe and admiration.

"Do you know who she is?" Mello asked. L nodded.

"But you don't know who I am, Blondie. I bet it's really killing you on the inside too," K said. Mello snarled and tried to attack K, but L grabbed the back of his shirt before he could do anything at all.

"My, my. For a 5 year old, you sure are violent," L, said quietly, smiling a little. K's lips twitched a little, the only indication that she was paying attention to what L said. "Now go to class, and don't come back here. You aren't proving that you can keep your emotions in check, so no coming back," L said and let Mello's shirt go. Mello grumbled something unintelligible and stalked out of the room.

It was a few days after the encounter with Mello, when K was allowed to stay at the orphanage. Wammy knew that she wasn't a threat because she had proven that she was K, over and over again. L still hadn't figured out what she was hiding, and it was starting to piss him off.

K decided that she liked L, and she could trust him enough to talk to him. She had yet to tell him about why exactly she had run away from 'home'. It was more of the fact that she didn't know L enough to trust him with her secrets that she had been harboring for her whole life.

L knew that K trusted him more than anyone in the house, but she still didn't trust him with how she got to the orphanage. L knew that she couldn't trust him until he opened up to her, but he couldn't. He didn't trust anyone, especially new people. There were things in L's past that were horrifying, though it was just because of something that had happened to him at a young age.

One day, a few days after K got her room in the orphanage L saw how damaged she really was. He saw her peer cautiously around every corner and when people got close to her, she always flinched. Unless it was L, and that was an accomplishment, but L didn't know how big of an accomplishment it was.

"Hello, L" K said, walking slowly into one of the classrooms that L liked to sit in a lot. L looked over at her and saw that her eyes were guarded and searching the room a lot.

"Hello, K. Do you need something?" L asked politely, knowing that a sharp tone would make her fearful.

"Well the blonde girl, or guy, came into my room this morning and took my notebook. And due to my weakened state I could not get the book back. Will you assist me in retrieving my notebook?" K asked stiffly, unused to addressing people.

"Of course," L replied. They walked out together, on opposite sides of the hallway. L noticed that K always hesitated by doors and doorways.

They found Mello sitting in his room, looking through the notebook K had with her at all times. He looked horrified at whatever was in it. L looked over at K and saw her eyes widened slightly, that notebook must hold something bad for Mello to be looking like that. The last time he looked like that was when he saw his parents murdered in front of him, although this was a lesser look of horror.

"Mello, give it back!" K commanded, ashamed. Mello looked up and saw K, and he frowned.

"All of this happened to you?" Mello asked. K just nodded and Mello looked at her with pity. "There's more to it, isn't there?" K nodded again.

"Mello, please hand K her notebook," L said quietly. Mello nodded and handed K her notebook. K walked out of the room after receiving it, shaking slightly. "Mello, you shouldn't steal her things. She has very few items, and that was probably the only thing that has helped her so far. You should apologize for stealing it," L scolded. Mello nodded.

L went searching for K when she didn't show up for lunch and she wasn't in her room. He was getting worried, but he didn't know why he was worried about her. She was supposed to be his rival, but she was becoming his friend instead. He found her in a closet on the farthest end of the school, staring at the wall blankly. He cleared his throat, but she didn't move.

"K," L sighed. She still didn't look up at L, she wasn't even listening. She couldn't hear a thing he was saying because she was blocking everything out. "K," L said a little louder. She stopped trying to block everything out and looked at L.

"Yes?" She said quietly.

"Are you alright?" K shook her head. "What can I do?" L pleaded. K didn't answer right away.

"Nothing. There's nothing anybody can do for me, except hurt me. There's absolutely nothing anybody can do. People don't _care_ about me because I'm not supposed to exist, I'm not really even alive. I'm not really a person, L. My name is not on _any_ database, I don't have a birth certificate, I don't exist," K said quietly, her face was blank. L looked in shock, she wasn't on any database? Her parents had to have kept her a secret.

"Why?" L asked in the same tone as her.

"Because they didn't _want_ me. They tried killing me when I was younger, many times too, until they found out how intelligent I was. Then they exploited that, and they poisoned my food enough to weaken my body, so I couldn't run away. They kept me so that they could make money by making me solve cases. I tried reporting them many times, but they weren't stupid. They knew that I would do something, and they had friends _everywhere_," K explained, her expression not changing at all. L looked stunned and horrified.

"Why did you keep eating the poisoned food?" L asked, thinking of the most likely answer.

"Because they fed me once a day, or not at all that day. It depended on how many cases I could solve. They were trying to break me, but they didn't realize that they weren't doing a good enough job. They should have known that I wasn't planning on living for much longer," K whispered. L looked at her with surprise, he wasn't really expecting her to say something like that.

"What?" He asked stupidly. K sighed and looked him straight in the face, a steely glint in her blue eyes.

"You heard me, I'm not repeating myself. I knew that they were trying to find ways to make me do something like that, my parents were smart. They knew how to get inside my head. I went mad, and they knew what I was planning, and they stopped me. It was a simple thing, just set my room on fire, and tie myself to my floor. They found the matches that I had smuggled into the room one day, and I got the biggest and worst beating ever. They broke a few bones and such, but my father was a doctor, so he put a splint on it so that it wouldn't cause permanent damage. I knew that they were planning to try another attempt on my life, so I was trying to stop them by killing them too," she explained as if it weren't a big deal.

"How did your parents try to kill you when you were younger?" L asked suddenly, his mind swimming.

"All sorts of ways. Drowning, beating me, making me bleed out, starvation, etcetera, you get the picture. It always failed though, I stopped them. Every time I stopped them, I got beat, even if I was already beat! They also tried dehydration, but I always found some way to get something to drink," K said again, her voice detached and uncaring, as if she were talking about someone who she really didn't care about. L realized with a start that she _didn't_ care about herself. She wasn't afraid of dying or getting killed.

"Why didn't they want you?" L asked.

"Because they never wanted a kid, they just wanted it to be just them and their large sum of money, that I took from their accounts a few days ago. It was really simple, and I put it into a private account and was planning to donate all of the money to various charities that would help people who needed it. I wasn't going to keep it. It's tainted money as far as I'm concerned," K replied with a very small smile on her face.

"Well, you should do whatever you think is best," L told her. She nodded and the smile got a little bigger, as if she had figured something out.

"How about you add it to the orphanage's account. It'll come in handy, because I need a lot of supplies to finish the case, and I'll probably need medical attention soon," K said.

"Why would you need medical attention?" L asked.

"Because I'm sick. I know that the poison is weakening my immune system and killing my slowly and painfully, but it's not like anyone would miss me, so you can just let me die if you want," K said, actually thinking that L would let someone like her die. He shook his head.

"No, let's get this done. How do you think they'll get rid of the poison?" L asked.

"By using the antidote. It's on my father's computer, and well, I'm kind of an expert with technology," K replied. "I know how to make it too, it's fairly simple and I just need some supplies." L nodded.

"What do you need?" L asked.

K listed the ingredients and told him to give Dr. Walkner the list and tell him to make it. L nodded and walked away to tell the doctor.

A few hours had passed, and K had taken the antidote. She knew that it wasn't going to fix anything right away. She would have to get her strength back, which meant no running around with the other children.

Near had seen her, and his curiosity got the better of him. He went into L's room to ask who she was, when he saw her sitting there, holding her notebook.

"Hello," Near said when he was in the doorway, she looked up at him blankly.

"Hi," she replied quietly. "Who're you?"

"Near. Who are you, and why are you in this room?" Near asked monotonously. K smirked, though it didn't reach her eyes, because her eyes were blank and guarded.

"Oh, that's not important. And I'm in L's room because he allowed me to be here," she said in the same tone that Near had used. Near blinked and just walked in the room and sat down on the only chair in the room.

"How can I trust you?" Near asked quietly.

"I don't know. Ask L, and get blondie to watch me, I suppose," K replied. Near gave a slightly puzzled expression before he realized blondie was really Mello.

L walked into the room as K was finishing, and Near had yet to notice him standing in the doorway.

"Is there something you need Near?" L asked, startling the four-year-old boy.

"Who is she, and why is she sitting here like she's allowed to be in here?" Near asked.

"Well, she obviously didn't tell you who she was, and that means I can't tell you because you know that people's secrets are supposed to be that way. And she's in here because I allowed her to stay in here until she wants to leave," L answered. Near just nodded. "You're excused Near." Near nodded again and shuffled out the door.

"Why do all the children have a fascination with me?" K asked.

"Because you're the only one that is able to talk to me whenever you want to," L answered. K nodded in understanding and opened her notebook to the last page and took out a pencil and started drawing. L knew better than to ask K what was in her notebook, so he just sat at his computer and worked on his newest case.

"L, I finished the case that I was working on before I ran away," K told him.

"You don't have to solve cases anymore if you don't want to," L told her. She looked at him and her lips twitched, and L knew that was her smiling.

"I know, but I enjoy it," K said.


	4. Chapter Three

**Date in story: May 12th.**

K dreaded this day above all others. It was the worst day she could imagine. Her birthday. Now, normally, people are happy to have a birthday and receive gifts from various friends and family. But K only had a friend, and no family. They were dead, or at least she thought they were, she didn't really care about them at the moment.

L knew something was wrong today because K was acting stranger than usual. She was a bit off. She couldn't stop from flinching at any sound or any person that got too close. Though these movements were miniscule, L could see them and he knew something was bothering K.

"K, are you alright?" L asked quietly, K flinched a little and looked over at L. He could see the mild fear in her eyes before she managed to compose herself.

"No, I'm not alright. But I can't tell you yet," K replied. L nodded, he wasn't going to get any information from her unless she wanted to talk about it. "It's not that I don't trust you, it's just that I'm not ready to share this part of my past with you," K said quickly, thinking that she made L angry.

"I understand. Don't worry about it," L said soothingly. K nodded and walked into her room. She grabbed her notebook and started writing in it quickly. L could see that she visibly calmed down when she started writing or drawing in that notebook of hers.

A few minutes later she stopped writing and L saw that she looked tired, but it wasn't anything new; especially because she was still fairly weak and she never ate that much.

"L, do you want to know why I'm so jumpy today?" K asked suddenly, looking up from her notebook and looking straight at L, a neutral look on her face.

"Yes, but if you aren't ready to discuss it then I can wait for a while," L replied, sounding rather bored. K smirked lightly, so lightly that it looked like a twitch of her lips.

"Well…today is my birthday," She said quietly. L looked at her puzzled.

"Explain please," L said with slight irritation.

"Remember what I told you a while ago, about how my parents never wanted me? Well, think about it," K answered. Realization dawned on L, today is the anniversary of when she was born into that life of hers, she was petrified probably because she was beaten the worst on this day out of any.

"Oh," L mumbled, looking down at his knees. K sighed and poked L's shoulder timidly, like she would get hit from touching him.

"It's ok, L. I'm alright," K murmured softly, trying to comfort him. L shook his head, it wasn't ok, and she wasn't ok.

"No," L whispered. "No, you're _not_ okay. What they did to you was just awful and I don't want you saying that you're _okay_," L hissed. K's eyes widened in shock and fear. L mentally slapped himself. "It's just that you have been through so much, and how you can stand here right now, well, technically you're sitting, but that isn't really the point. You've been through so much, and you aren't showing your sadness or fear. You are bottling it up, and it's not healthy," L was pleading with her to cry or scream. Anything that could help her if she got it all out.

"Why? Why do you care for me so much when my own parents, the people that were supposed to take care of me, didn't care? Why do you think I deserve so much care?" K asked quietly, her voice steady the whole time she said this.

"What do you mean? You deserve so much more than just me caring, you deserve so much more," L answered with his own question.

"Nevermind. It doesn't matter anyways," K replied gruffly.

"It _does_ matter, or else you wouldn't have brought it up," L muttered. K sighed and handed L her notebook.

"Here, Mello already read it, it only tells you so much about me, so don't get any ideas," she said quietly. L looked at her and she nodded and he opened it.

L was…well, there's really no word for how he felt. He was furious, sad, shocked, and slightly content. He was also very confused after reading the notebook; it was in code. There were sayings that probably meant many things, and he had a bad feeling about some of them.

He found K sitting in a dark classroom; her shoulders were shaking slightly, an indication that she was either scared or crying. L was betting that it was the latter. He walked over to her and sat facing her, and sure enough, there were tears streaming down her cheeks.

"K," he whispered, pain evident in his voice. She looked up at him and gave him a small watery smile.

"I'm better, not much, but I'm better," she whispered. She stood up and waited for L to stand up; when he did she walked out of the room. L followed her, and saw that she was going outside. It was raining and K didn't seem phased by this at all, so L figured that it was no big deal.

K stood out in the rain for a few minutes, looking deep in thought. L kept glancing between her and Matt, who was on his way outside now. Matt looked curious as to who K was, and why the hell she was standing outside in the rain.

"Hey, L," Matt called from inside. L turned around briefly and returned the greeting with a simple wave. "Who's that girl and why is she standing out in the rain?" Matt asked, nodding his head in K's direction.

K turned around and gasped slightly, so did Matt.

"Matt?" K asked quietly, her eyes staying on Matt's face.

"K-K?" Matt practically yelled. "How'd you get here? When did you get here?"

L was confused, so he decided to ask, "How do you two know each other?"

"Matt's my cousin. His dad and my mom were siblings, I thought he was dead. It's been a few years," K explained, not taking her eyes off Matt.

"My parents weren't too pleased to know that you weren't treated well, that is probably why they tried to get you from your parents. The only problems were that you weren't on any records, and that my parents were killed a while ago," Matt said more to K than L. K seemed a little happier now that she knew someone from her family was alive. "Oh, and Happy Birthday, though I can see that it's not a happy day."

K sighed and rolled her eyes at her cousin's behavior, "Of course it's an unhappy day. You don't know everything that went on in that house then?" K asked. Matt shook his head. "I really don't want to explain everything again," she muttered.

"I could give Matt the information if you want," L said, a little pissed that he wasn't in the conversation, but he could understand that they haven't seen each other in a while.

"Thank you, L. Now, let's go back inside so that I don't get any sicker," K said lightly. Matt and L nodded and they walked inside the house.

After Matt got the full explanation and read everything in K's notebook, he was pissed. And that was an understatement. He looked like he could kill somebody, no joke. K looked at him and then at L, who just looked bored, as usual.

"Matt?" K asked quietly. Matt snapped out of his death glare and his eyes softened.

"I'm sorry for what those people did to you, I'm ashamed to call them family, and even more ashamed that I couldn't help you," Matt whispered. K shook her head before he even finished.

"It's not your fault. You lived in a whole different country, and plus there isn't much that you could do," K said quietly, sincerity in every word. Matt smiled and looked at L. L was looking at K with an odd expression, that Matt realized was a small little smile that only L could pull off.

Mello walked into the room and saw the three in the recreation room. K and Matt were playing the gaming console, both looked happy, though K just had a slightly less depressed look on her face.

"Matt!" Mello yelled, causing Matt to drop the controller on the ground and turn around and glare at his best friend.

"Hey, Blondie," K said, not looking at Mello.

"Hey weirdo!" Mello replied. K scoffed and went back to playing.

"How do you know her?" Matt asked.

"I saw her a few days after she got here. How do you know her?" Mello asked, eyeing them and noticing how familiar they were with each other.

"We're related, Blondie," K answered for Matt. Mello's mouth was hanging open.

"Mels, she's the cousin I told you I had before I came here. I told you that I was going to bring her one day," Matt said. K turned around and Mello closed his mouth when he saw the smug expression on her face.

"So, you're Clara?" Mello asked. K shook her head.

"Oh, no. That's just what Matt said my name is. I'm actually K. Clara is my English alias, so yeah," K replied.

"You're lying!" Mello practically shrieked. L shook his head.

"No, she's really K. And as far as her being Matt's cousin, I really don't know if that's true or not. So, I'm just going to say they're related," L replied. Mello looked over at L and was about to say something when K suddenly shrieked.

They all looked over at her and saw that Linda, one of the other girls came in and had K's notebook. L practically ran over and snatched it from the five-year-olds hands. She looked up at L and started sniffling.

"Linda, you know better. Now please go, and get your lunch," L scolded. Linda just nodded and scampered away. L handed K her notebook, and she looked at him and her lips twitched.

"Are you ok?" Matt asked. K nodded and held the notebook tighter to her chest. She walked out of the room to grab lunch.

K went into the line and got a pudding cup and an apple and left the cafeteria. She went back into the room and L looked at her lunch.

"Are you going to get more?" Matt asked. K shook her head. "Why not?" He demanded.

"I can't hold that much food down right now. This is more than I had yesterday," K explained. Matt frowned but let her eat her small lunch in peace. Watari came into the room and handed L his slice of Strawberry Cheesecake, which he promptly started eating.

K and Matt spent a while together until they decided to go back to their best friends. Matt went back to Mello and K went back to L. They decided to spend time together at dinner instead of whole days because Matt noticed that he and K were practically strangers and that L knew what was best for her.

K was glad that she got to go back to spending time with L when they didn't have classes. L was also glad, but he didn't show it, but K knew anyways. L noticed that the few months that she had been at Wammy's had changed her for the better, because she talked more often and she wasn't as dependent on her notebook, though it may have been the fact that L had given her a bear that she now carried around everywhere.

K knew that things would be changing, whether it was for better or for worse.

END!


	5. Chapter Four

**K=14 years old

L=19 years old**

It was a frigid December11th, but K wasn't allowed to spend it outside. She had an important case to solve. Someone was murdering people in Paris, and it was pretty gruesome. The first victim got their eyes gouged out with forks, and all of their fingers were broken off and stuffed into their orifices. They also suffered from multiple lacerations from a knife that was found inside of a duffle bag three miles from the scene. The second victim was almost identical except for the fingers in the orifices. Instead it was their toes, and their face had numerous lacerations that made it unidentifiable by regular means.

Needless to say, K was enjoying this case immensely, which wasn't abnormal. K loved what she did; protecting people from the shadows, but it scared the hell out of her. Especially since she had recently found evidence that her parents were still alive, watching her, making sure that they weren't forgotten. K's nightmares started again, and L hated when he had to leave, because he made them better, but only a little.

"K," Mello said, making K jump. "Did I scare ya?"

"For God's sake Mello. Go the hell away! I don't need you scaring me shitless EVERYTIME I'm trying to analyze the crime scenes." K snapped.

"Fine, I guess I won't tell you something," Mello drawled. K rolled her eyes.

"L's back, I presume?" K said, spinning the chair around to face the 11 year old.

"How'd you know?" He demanded.

"L called me last night and told me he'd be back to help me with this case," K said nonchalantly, though she was happy that her best friend was back.

"Damn you and that accursed personality of yours," Mello muttered. "It'll be the death of me. You act just like Near sometimes, you know that?"

"Mello. Shut up before I kill you," K said halfheartedly. Mello grinned and sauntered out of the room. K sighed and got back to work.

An hour later she got information on a third murder, this one had all of his limbs removed and his head sliced clean off his neck. K looked at the limbs and saw that they were arranged into a 'K'. She sighed, this is most likely her parents doing, and they were hiring people anonymously. "Great, now I have to find them too," K muttered to herself without any emotion in her voice. She heard someone sigh behind her and she turned around. L was standing in her doorway with his little smile that most people found creepy as hell, but she found it cute.

"What are you muttering about?" L asked in his usual monotone. K sighed and waited until L was in her room.

"This is my parents' doing. Indirectly, of course. They're using aliases and hiring somebody to do this. I think it might be B. The way these are set up are exactly like his animal experiments and drawings that he left behind. I'm really hoping that it's not him; if he finds us then he'll torture and kill me, and I really don't want to be tortured if I'm subjected to death," K explained quickly before handing L an external hard drive with all of the case information that he'd need. He nodded and set up his laptop on the other side of the table so that he was facing K.

Watari walked into the room and saw that K was working with a pained look in her eyes. L was looking at K's expression with the slightest frown.

"Is there anything I can get either of you?" Watari asked, breaking the silence in the room. K looked over at Watari with a grateful expression on her face.

"Can you bring me some plain strawberries and a bar of dark chocolate, please? Oh and some coffee, 4 sugars, 2 creams?" K asked. Watari nodded, "thanks."

"Strawberry Swirl cheesecake and tea, 9 sugars and milk," L said, Watari nodded right away.

"You should take a break, K. Matt told me you haven't been sleeping for more than 3 hours a night, he's worried," Watari said. K shook her head.

"It won't do any good. My mind is sharpest right now because of all the work I've been doing. I finished that new program for the school and I finished three of Matt's games. I really don't think sleep will help right now," K explained quickly. Watari sighed; he knew he wouldn't be able to get her to do anything right now.

"K, you should sleep. I'll keep working and I'll wake you up if anything happens," L promised her. She shook her head again, and L sighed.

"Nope. I'm hungry anyways, so it's convenient to stay awake. That way my coffee will be warm, and my food'll be fresh," K said. Watari and L huffed and got to do whatever they were going to.

An hour later K fell asleep at her desk and L kept working. Watari walked back in to pick up the plates and saw K sleeping at the desk with a pained expression on her porcelain face. That worried him, especially since she hadn't let L see her notebooks in a while, which meant something was up. Suddenly, K sat up; her eyes were wide open and bloodshot. She was breathing heavily and L went to her and whispered something in her ear. She nodded and went over to her drawer.

"You're right, I can't work right now. I'll try to get more sleep before anything interesting happens," K said. She pulled out a bottle of pills and took 2 and laid down on her bed. "Wake me up as soon as ANYTHING happens."

"Of course," L said. K closed her eyes and fell asleep almost instantly.

"What did she take?" Watari asked.

"Anti-anxiety medications. She's been taking them for a while now," L said. Watari nodded, he didn't need to know any more than that. L picked up his phone and called Matt. "I'm going to need your help for a while on this case," L murmured into the receiver and hung up a minute later.

Matt walked in quietly, a sad expression on his face. He knew the only reason he was on this case was because K couldn't at the moment. "Will she be alright?" Matt asked when he saw her sleeping. "I've noticed that she has been extremely tense and not completely there. Is it her parents?"

"Unfortunately it's more than just her parents. B has started killing people and leaving obvious signs that he wants K to give herself up, but what puzzles me is that her parents have hired him. Before all of these killings they were committing more minor crimes that wouldn't involve people getting killed or mutilated like these people in Paris," L explained quickly and quietly. Matt nodded in understanding, already worried for his cousin's safety.

"We have to solve this quickly, or else K might get hurt," Matt whispered. L nodded in agreement, he would protect her at any cost.

K woke up and glared at L's empty chair and the note placed on the table. She walked over to the desk slowly and picked up the note. It was a note from L. It read:

K,

I'm sorry to leave without saying goodbye in person, but an important case came up. I had to leave quickly because this is potentially dangerous. Unfortunately I cannot tell you the details of the case for obvious reasons, but I'm sure you'll hear about it, or hack into my computer to read about it.

Until next time,

L

P.S. Burn this note after you have read it.

K followed L's directions and burnt the note until there was nothing left of it, and she went to look at her computer, only to see that her case had been solved. K sighed and started another one; this one was definitely connected to her parents. They had left the usual signs, practically begging to be caught, it seemed. But no, they were smarter than that. Much smarter.

K heard a scream coming from A's room. She ran out the door and into A's room, only to see A was dead. She saw an open bottle of pills and a half full bottle of Vodka on his bedside table. K checked for a pulse. Nothing. She pressed the emergency button on her ring, and waited for the crew to get there. K saw Linda crying her eyes out; she had been quite fond of him, and he was fond of her. K went over to Linda and put her hand on her shoulder.

"W-why d-d-did A do this?" Linda wailed.

"Because being L's successor was too much for him. He couldn't handle it, there was so much pressure to be the smartest," K answered. Linda looked up at her.

"Then why didn't he tell L that he didn't want to be his successor anymore?" Linda asked angrily through her tears.

"Because he didn't want to disappoint L, though L would have understood. L had to go through this as well, remember? L wasn't always the detective he is today, he was a successor for the title L," K said. Linda looked shocked, though she shouldn't have. She should have remembered the history of L. It was taught to everyone. But, now was not a good time to remind her that.

K hadn't really known A so she couldn't relate, and she couldn't feel the grief that Linda was so she just waited with the girl and left as soon as the crew got there.

K told Roger about A's suicide, and Roger watched K's totally emotionless face stay stoic and uninterested as she explained everything. Roger told her that he would call L as soon as he could to tell him of his successor's death.

K's 15th birthday had come and passed with her working relentlessly on all of her cases, trying to find her parent's location. No luck. But she had a clue as to where their next crime would occur. Things were looking up. At least for a while.


	6. Chapter Five

There were some strange events happening at Wammy's House. Well, strange for them. The only people that seemed to be acting normally were K and Near, but they were always calm and collected. L was working in L.A. to try and catch a serial murderer that was almost certainly B. He was the only one who could commit crimes so grotesque and then go back and pretend to investigate them.

K walked to her room and saw Matt sitting on the bed, smoking a cigarette. It was a nasty habit he picked up after Mello left. K sighed and plucked the cigarette from his lips and put it out on her desk.

"Damn it, Matt!" she exclaimed. "If you're going to smoke then go outside. You know that smell makes me sick."

"Sorry," he muttered distractedly. He looked up at K with his bright green eyes, "why do you think Mello left?"

"You know I have no idea, Matt" she replied quietly. "But he'll come back. He wouldn't dare leave you here alone. I could probably find him since he's probably playing with those stupid Greek mobsters again."

Matt laughed and rolled his eyes. "Yeah, I bet. He likes the mob too much. I wonder how he's surviving without someone fetching his chocolate."

"My bet is he got someone to get it for him," K snickered. "He can get anyone to do what he wants with those ideas and that smile of his. He got you to steal from the convenient store at one in the morning that one time."

"That's true, but he got you to fork over a bunch of research for that one case last year," Matt shot back. K gave him a devious smile.

"I didn't, actually. The information was fake," K replied. Matt laughed; of course she would give Mello the fake information.

"Wow," Matt said. "How did you fabricate all of that?"

"Near helped," she said, shrugging and going to the mini-fridge in her room. "Do you want a drink?"

"What do you have?" Matt asked.

"Whatever was in your room earlier," K said, turning around to grin at him. "You honestly didn't think that I would have dropped by your room just to say hello and all that, did you?"

"No," Matt said. "But I thought you were going to try and figure out something about A."

"No. I know exactly why he killed himself," K said sadly. "He was tormented by B for the longest time, and it finally got to him when L was starting to push him. B always said that A couldn't do it, and he made sure that he messed up A's mind enough to where too much pressure would break him."

"How do you know this?" Matt asked, looking at her and seeing barely any emotion on her face.

"B tried to do it to me. It didn't work, though. It would have if I hadn't had the experience I have now," she answered quietly. "I think that's all my parents were good for. They made me stronger in some way."

Matt made a disgusted sound and left the room, no doubt to find a spot to smoke where Roger wouldn't find him. K went to her computer and looked in her case files. There were files that she could link to her parents. Any guards were drugged and the tellers were sedated. Her parents were doctors at some point after all, so they knew which drugs to use.

A few hours later, K's private line rang and she picked up the phone.

"Hello," she said robotically, mostly due to the voice changer on the line.

"K," a voice said quietly.

"Password?" she asked. She heard a sigh on the other line.

"Lemon Drop," the voice said. "X3-FGH6-BLY."

"Ah, Mello. I was wondering when you'd call the house," she said, turning off the voice changer. "What do you need?"

"I just wanted to see how Matt's doing," Mello said. She could hear the worry in his voice.

"He's fine besides the fact he's started smoking," K said. "Though I'm not supposed to tell anyone about that."

"HE DID WHAT?" Mello screeched.

"Jesus, Mello. Don't screech, it makes you sound like a girl," K grumbled. "Plus, my ear was right to the receiver. So thank you very much for the headache you jerk."

"Jerk? Seriously?" Mello said. "And don't call me a girl!"

"Then cut your damn hair you hippy! And don't wear clothes from the woman's department. They sell skinny jeans in the guys departments, too you know," K replied half seriously.

"The guys jeans don't fit right," Mello said quietly.

"That's because of your girlish figure," K replied blandly, hearing Mello cursing at her in every language he knew. "Ok, ok. Enough. I don't have all day! I have at least five 'urgent' cases that need to get done as soon as possible. If you want to know how Matt is talk to him yourself, he misses you like crazy and I know you miss him more than you're letting on." K hung up and started working on the urgent cases that were in her files.

A few days later L walked into her room, hunched over as always. K was reading a book and Matt was playing a handheld system with headphones plugged in.

"Hello," L said in his usual monotone, causing both Matt and K to jump in surprise.

"L," K said, matching L's tone. "Did you catch B?"

"Yeah," he replied. "He tried burning himself to death so that he could beat me or something. It was absurd. Luckily Misora-san figured out the clues B left."

"We both know that you don't believe in luck, L. You can't prove it exists, so therefore it is a mere coincidence," K said, looking at L with a calculating expression. "How was the flight?"

"I solved several cases using the usual methods and then solved a few cold cases," he said. K rolled her eyes and went back to her book. "Is that any good?"

"It's alright I suppose," she said shrugging. "I figured out who the murderer was in the first ten chapters. I'd say this is for someone of average intelligence, so basically it's not suited for any of the children here."

"Ah," L said plainly. "Have you figured out Mello's location?"

"Yes, but I think he can come home on his own," K replied. "He's a big boy, he can take care of himself." Matt snorted and took out his headphones.

"Yeah right," Matt said. "He can't even get his own chocolate. How is he going to survive on his own?"

"He could get his own chocolate," K said. "He's just too lazy and knows that someone else will get it for him." L nodded.

"I wouldn't have chosen you, Mello, and Near for my new successors if I didn't think that you were capable of caring for yourselves," L explained. Matt shook his head.

"No," Matt said. "I don't want to be the next L. After what happened to A, there's no way that I want to do this. And I don't want to be tied down to that." L nodded and looked at K.

"No," she said before he could say anything. "I already have my own name, and we all know that I don't want another one."

"Especially one like mine," L commented. K shrugged and went to her laptop and saw more cases for her to solve.

"Hey Matt," K said innocently. "Do you want to solve a few cases for me so I can go get some tea?"

"K," L scolded. "You're supposed to solve them yourself." K and Matt shared a look. "What?" L asked blandly.

"Oh, nothing. Nothing at all," K said, smiling at him. L gave her a blank look that she read as, 'what are you plotting?'

"Well, I suppose there's nothing that I can do that'll get you to solve the cases yourself," L replied dryly. "Though I could always tell Roger to make you move out."

"No," K said. "You couldn't. I'm still a minor technically, and I know you wouldn't do anything like that because you're not that heartless when it comes to your friends." L sighed and walked over to the fridge and took out a piece of cake. "You know that's my cake, right?" K asked, turning around to face L.

"I do not see your name on it," he replied. She sighed and shook her head.

"Fine, fine," she said, waving her hand for him to do whatever he wanted. She turned back to her computer and started typing away furiously, trying to find the clues that she knew would be in the evidence.

And of course she was correct. The killer in this case left a calling card that she could link to three of the other cases. The killer had carved a single symbol on the center of each of the victims' chests. There were also things like the kind of knives used and the random fibers left behind.

"Have you figured out what the fibers are yet?" L asked through a mouthful of cake. K shook her head and turned around.

"Not yet," K said. "It would be helpful if Matt would get off his ass and actually run all the samples."

"Fine," Matt sighed. He stood up and left the room, dragging his feet along the floor as he went. L and K watched him leave with blank expressions on their faces.

"Do you think he is alright?" L asked monotonously. K turned to him.

"I think so," K said. "He's just tired and he misses Mello."

"Ah," L replied blandly. K knew that he was worried about Matt, but he wouldn't, no, couldn't show any emotion. It was his job to be an emotionless machine, and really it was her job too, but she wanted to look out for her cousin because he was her only family.

"He'll be alright," she murmured, more to herself than L. L nodded sharply to her and turned on his laptop.

"I have to leave in a day or two and I do not know when I'll be coming back," L said.

"It's part of the job," K replied. "I only stay here because I don't have an assistant that can coordinate everything for me."

"I could arrange one if you wanted one," L said.

"Yes, but that would require extensive searches and it could take months just for the preliminary results," K explained. "I don't have the luxury of time, you know. There are things that I need to get done as soon as they're handed to me."

"I suppose you're right," L said quietly. "You could always go with Watari and I whenever we leave."

"No, that wouldn't work," K replied quickly. "We would get in each others way all the time, and that would slow down the pace by at least 35%."

L thought about it for a moment before he realized that she was correct in her explanation. Their styles of investigation were extremely similar, but how they viewed certain aspects of a crime scene would cause them to look over the scene for far longer than if they worked separately. He wanted her to come with, but it would get in the way, and his work had to come first. She understood that more than anyone else in Wammy's House.

"I'm perfectly fine with working from Wammy's," she said, somehow knowing what he was feeling and thinking. "I'd like to go with you, but it wouldn't be a logical idea. The fact is that it's alright to work together on high profile cases, like anything involving B and some of the smarter criminals, but anything else would just be impossible."

"You're right," L replied almost sadly. "I will contact you with any high profile case that can be solved with the two of us working together."

"You better," she threatened. "Or else I'll solve it before you and before you know it, I'll have taken the lead and you'll be scrambling to catch up."

"We all know that I will ultimately defeat you," L retorted. "I have superior intellect and I have more access to resources due to connections that I have had for many years now."

"We both know that the IQ test that you're trying to reference is outdated," K replied lazily.

"That may be so, but my IQ is still higher," he retorted lamely. She snorted at him and rolled her eyes.

"Sure, whatever helps you solve cases faster," she said, patting him on the arm. She thought he would flinch, but he showed no reaction. Interesting.

L looked at K in surprise, he didn't flinch. If anyone else touched him he would flinch, but he didn't react at all. What did that mean? How was she different from everyone else? L wanted to know the answer to this and what this meant for their friendship.


	7. Chapter Six

She was not in the mood for anything that happened that day. She was woken up at 5am by her annoying cousin. K got news L was going half way around the goddamn world just to catch a psychopath. Oh, and the man who was out to get her was killing people and using their corpses to send her messages. She was also very uncomfortable due to the fact that she slept sitting up in her chair exactly how L sat on a regular basis.

K sat up and stretched, wincing as her back cracked a couple of times. She really needed to stop sitting like that; it was going to cause posture problems, much like L's. K stood up slowly and stumbled due to the lack of feeling in her legs from how she slept. Matt watched her from the doorway with a smile on his face. It was always fun to watch her stumble around in the morning, especially when he was the one who woke her up.

"What the fuck Matt?" she groaned as he turned on the light, making her vision erupt in dark spots. "Why did you wake me up so early? And why the fuck did you turn on the light?"

Matt shrugged and walked into the room. "I don't know," he said honestly, pulling a cigarette out of his pocket and lighting it. "Want one?" he asked, offering her the pack. K shrugged and pulled one out, trying it once would be an interesting experiment. She grabbed the lighter from Matt and lit it easily, inhaling as she did so.

She started coughing for a minute before getting used to the smoke going into her lungs. "This isn't that bad," K muttered to herself hoarsely, taking another drag. She and Matt moved to her bed and sat by the open window to try and keep the smell of smoke off of them. If L or Roger knew that K had picked up smoking, she would be in so much trouble and L would be disappointed. She hated when he was disappointed with her because he wouldn't really talk to her or look her in the eyes. And if he did happen to look in her eyes, she would just see the blank obsidian orbs to stare back at her.

After they finished their cigarettes, K excused herself and took a shower before breakfast. She got out of the shower and put on her simple outfit. She wore a black t-shirt and grey sweatpants that were really loose on her. She and Matt walked down into the cafeteria, talking about Matt's new game and her new computer. She would smile every once in a while, and Matt would be surprised each time because her smiles were rare, but Matt could understand why.

"Hello K," Near said blandly when she and Matt sat down at the table. K smiled at him, and his eyes widened a fraction.

"Good morning Near," she said quietly. "Matt! I heard a rumor that a certain blonde Russian is in the area," K said suddenly, watching as Matt's expression changed from disbelief to happiness to suspicious.

"How reliable are your sources?" he asked, narrowing his eyes. K shrugged and took a bite of her toast.

"Reliable enough for me to know that B is in France with my parents plotting my death once again," she mumbled. "So I've gotten enough information to call L and tell him that we need to come up with a plan to capture my parents and kill B."

"Why not kill your parents?" Near asked. She raised an eyebrow at him as if the answer were obvious.

"Because that would lower me to their level, and I need to be the better person," she replied. "But if they resist or try and run, rest assured, I will shoot them both and kill them to keep the world safe from the doctors of doom."

"Doctors of doom?" Matt asked incredulously. "Really? What a lame name."

"Shut up, Matt," K grumbled. "It's not like you could think of anything better. And no, I'm not going to use their names right now because that would just stress me out, and I need to calm down and think as rationally as possible in order to catch them and B." Matt raised his hands in surrender and they all got back to their breakfast.

K rushed to her room as soon as she finished breakfast so that she could solve as many cases as she could to try and distract her from her current issues. She looked at one of the files and saw a body that was so cut up and bloody that the coroner had to check DNA and dental records to identify the body. Most people would have been revolted and horrified of the pictures, but K looked at them with a calculating expression on her face. She was so used to these by now.

She spent an hour sifting through the reports of the police and other agencies, seeing what information would be useful to her investigation. To her mild surprise, most of the information in the reports was useful and she found the killer a couple of hours later while she was watching the interrogation tapes. She saw more than most people in her field. Like the slight trembling that was almost non-existent, and the bloodthirsty eyes.

After she finished a small stack of murder investigations, K decided it'd be a good idea to go into town and look for Mello. She knew it wasn't safe for her, but she wanted Matt to get his best friend back. And she needed to buy a pack of cigarettes, so it was a win-win, unless someone knew who she was and tried to kill her. She shook her head and walked out of Wammy's.

Mello walked down the deserted street in Winchester and swore. K was walking towards him with a slight frown on her face. He turned around and started running, but he could hear her catching up. He felt her arms around his waist as she took him down.

"What the fuck, Mello?" she yelled angrily, slapping him hard across the face. "Do you know how worried Matt was about you?"

"Sorry," he whispered. "I know that he misses me. I miss him too, but I needed some time for myself."

"Whatever," she growled. "Are you coming back to the house soon?" Mello nodded and pushed her off of him angrily. Mello rubbed his face where K had slapped him and grimaced, damn that bitch, he thought to himself.

"Why the hell did you tackle me?" he asked furiously. She shrugged and stood up. Mello noticed a pack of cigarettes on the ground. K swore to herself and picked them up as quickly as she could. "What the hell?" he asked. "Since when do you smoke?"

"Since the nightmares got worse," she said, looking down. "So basically today. But it's not a big deal."

"Not a big deal?" Mello asked incredulously. "I thought the smell of them made you sick," She shrugged again with her head still down, biting her lip softly in contemplation.

"It does," she amended. "But they calm me down enough to focus on the cases that need to be solved. So excuse me if I need something that lets me feel secure enough to be in my own room alone for hours on end without getting time to separate my dreams from reality."

"Why aren't you talking to L about this?" Mello asked harshly. She looked up at him and smiled dully.

"He's on a case that requires him to go out of the country. I don't even know where he is," K said miserably. "So I can't call him unless it's an emergency."

"Couldn't this be classified as an emergency?" Mello asked, pointing at the pocket with the cigarettes.

"I suppose," she said hesitantly. "But I can't stand L being disappointed in me." Mello patted her shoulder awkwardly. "So what have you been up to, lately?" K asked, effectively changing their conversation into an interrogation.

"Ummm," Mello said nervously. "I was playing around with the Russian Mafia in Moscow and then I went to New York and made an alliance with the Mob. I also found some interesting information about our doctor friends."

K smirked. "You did?" she asked. "When we go back home, you can tell me everything."

"Who says I'm going back?" Mello asked harshly. "Roger might not even let me come back. And if you think L's disappointment is bad, just wait until you've seen Matt's."

K snorted. "You're coming back," she said with a threatening undertone. "We all miss you, and at this rate if you don't come back, Near will end up becoming the new L. And we can't have that, now can we?" She said the last part teasingly, and smirked when he took the bait.

"No," he said with determination. "I can't let that damn robotic albino beat me. I'll win and rub it in his face!" K smiled and they went back to Wammy's.

She walked up to the gate where Matt was waiting for her to get back. When he saw Mello, the cigarette in his mouth fell onto the ground and he just stared. When they walked through the gate, the first thing Mello did was punch Matt in the stomach, causing him to fall onto his hands and knees and gasp for breath.

"Smoking?" Mello screeched. "Of all things. You had to go and choose the one that would kill you. You could have chosen reading, writing, sports. ANYTHING! But you chose to fill your lungs with tar!"

"Sorry," Matt gasped, still catching his breath. "It was the first thing I thought of. And it helped take the edge off."

"I know," Mello said softly, kneeling down by Matt. "But it can kill you! There's tar and other things I don't even want to think about in those things!"

"Mello," K said gently. "Be nice to him. You're the one who left him alone here."

"But he had you!" Mello yelled. "You should have been enough for him! But I bet you were too distracted with yourself and L to notice him."

"Yes I was distracted," K said calmly. "But I still was around Matt when I could pull myself out of my head and try to distract him from the loneliness that YOU caused him. And when L was actually home, I did spend a lot of time with him because he's my best friend and I never know if or when I'll ever see him again because what we do is dangerous."

Matt stood up and put his hand on K's shoulder. "It's not her fault, Mello," Matt said. "It's mine. K did her best, but she had her own problems to worry about, and I couldn't ask her to ignore L. I can't ask her to do anything that I'd be unwilling to do, and believe me, I wouldn't ignore you to help her. So don't tell her that it's her fault because she did the best she could with what she was given."

Mello frowned and saw how much they had both changed since he left. "Sorry," Mello muttered to K. She just smiled a little at him and shook her head to tell him that it wasn't necessary to apologize.

"Matt's just defending me," K said. "I shouldn't have dropped Matt just because L was back. I know I've been neglecting him a bit because of my intense worrying." She turned to Matt. "I'm so sorry Matt. I should have done better. You're my cousin and I ignored you for L, and that's not fair to you."

"K," Matt said quietly. "It's not your fault. I would have done the same exact thing if I were you. And I know how worried you get when L leaves and how your parents and B always make you worry so much because they're plotting something."

"That's not helping," Mello hissed at Matt. Matt looked up at K and saw her frowning slightly.

"I'm going inside," she said thickly before running into Wammy's. Once she got inside, she ran to the nearest bathroom and emptied her stomach. Matt was right. Her parents and B were nearby and they would be coming for her soon. She just knew that something bad would happen if she didn't find them and stop them soon. Tears flowed down her face as she emptied her stomach into the porcelain bowl.

After she finished throwing up, she sat on the bathroom floor and stared at the ground. She didn't want to leave the room, she was scared that they were right outside the door, just waiting to snatch her up and kill her. She put her head in her hands and closed her eyes. She needed to calm down and stop crying before anyone noticed that she was in there. She stood up, rubbed at her eyes furiously and flushed the toilet before walking out of the bathroom and up to her room.

As soon as she got to her room, she pulled the pack of cigarettes out of her pocket and lit one quickly. She took a slow drag and repeated the process until she put it out. 'Things are getting worse,' she thought to herself. 'I need to focus on catching them and not on my own issues and personal connections to the case.'

She lit another cigarette and started typing away at her laptop, trying to find any leads to her parents and B. She was also trying to solve a case that may have been connected to the case that L was working on. She hoped that they weren't connected because B was the murderer in her case, and she didn't want L to have to deal with B being the killer.

L looked over the crime scene photos of a case that K was working on and his eyes widened. B was sending them a message again, and this time it was written in blood. He was getting closer. And that meant K was in trouble. He needed to get back to England FAST, or else B would go to Wammy's and kill her and all of the other children. And all of that effort would be to make L miserable, and somehow make B the winner. L didn't exactly know what went on in B's head, and he was pretty sure that he didn't want to find out.

"Watari," L said calmly. "We need to go back home. K's in trouble."


	8. Chapter Seven

Things never went as planned, as L had come to learn. He wanted to get back because K was in trouble, but the jet was not waiting at the airport like it was supposed to. Why? Because Matt and Mello decided to ignore his request to call the jet from Wammy's to Singapore, and instead they sent it to New Hampshire. When he got back there would be hell to pay, the situation was dire and he needed to get K to safety.

"L," Watari said quietly. "They didn't mean to send it to the wrong place. They were, erm, occupied when you made the request. They're only human after all."

"They're not supposed to be!" L snapped. "They're supposed to function fully and never make mistakes because one mistake can cost a life. You and I know that very well. Please go call in some favors to get a jet or something to get us back home so that we can figure out what to do with K."

"Of course," Watari replied calmly. He took out his cell phone and called in a favor from the consulate while L paced back and forth trying to figure out a way to get home faster. "L," he said after a moment. "There's a jet waiting for us at the airport now, put your shoes and jacket on and let's go." L muttered something about not being a child, but put his jacket and shoes on anyways.

L got into the back of the car that Watari had set up for them and watched Watari load the bags into the car slowly before walking to the front seat and drove away, being mindful of the speed limit and any pedestrians. L growled in frustration and Watari sighed, he was trying to be careful. They got to the airport and L practically ran to the plane.

One of the jet's attendants helped Watari load all of the equipment into the jet and they took off within the hour. L grabbed his laptop and typed an e-mail to K to warn her about the danger she was in and then proceeded to tell her to prepare all of the children for evacuation to the Wammy House in South Africa. A couple minutes later he got a reply confirming that such protocol had been followed and that she would be waiting for his return to plan from there.

A couple of hours later, L was running through Wammy's House and all of the buses to the airport were departing from the house full of children and their most important belongings. The staff of Wammy's was sent out on different scouting missions to try and find B's exact location. The South African government agreed to let L's people guard the children, fully armed and continue lessons as planned.

When L had gotten to K's room she was packing all of her paperwork into a leather briefcase, her laptop going into the same briefcase. She had to think hard about this whole situation. Her life was crumbling all around her, and she was helplessly watching her friend try and put it together with nothing more than chewing gum and glue sticks. She wanted to scream and tell him to just let her go, and to let all of the pieces be obliterated completely because there was no point. She was going to be murdered anyways, so why delay the inevitable? It would just make it all the more painful for all of her friends if they failed.

She threw her bag on her bed and swore in every language she knew, which was quite a few, but she wasn't really counting. She cursed every god, every object, and every person while she put emphasis by punching the wall. It wasn't helping, she was just proving her insanity more and more. The worst part was that she knew it, but she couldn't find herself caring. She felt somewhat detached from her body, and that was never a good sign.

"L," she whimpered, starting to shake in her seat. "They're going to get me. Just let me go to them. They don't want you, they just want me dead. Please!" She started begging, but he shook his head and started pacing around her room, his thumb on his lips.

"No," he muttered. "I'm not going to let them do anything to you. You're far too important to me for me to just sit back and watch you die! I need you, you're my best friend and I doubt that there will ever be anyone that understands me as well as you do; and what about Matt? He needs you too! He may not admit it, but he needs your company when he and Mello fight, and when he's reminded of what has happened during his childhood. You're his only connection to his past that isn't trying to kill him!"

"You'll all survive without me," she muttered, looking down at her bloody knuckles, blood dripping onto the floor, from punching the wall. L stopped pacing and turned to her, looking at her knuckles blankly.

"We may live without you," L said bitterly, "but it won't be surviving! You don't understand the difference because you're not surviving! You let your fears take over when times get tough, and you can't afford to do that. You need to be a detective first and a human being second. I understand that it's difficult, especially for you because of what you've gone through and what you're still going through, but it's necessary for you to be able to enjoy life!"

"Does it really matter?" K asked angrily. "They're going to kill me anyways, even if you try and protect me! They're working with B! He'll stop at nothing to take you down, and I don't want anything to happen to you, stupid! You're my best friend, and I can't see you get hurt."

"Don't you realize that your death or even injury would hurt me?" L asked angrily. "Every time something bad happens to you, it hurts. You need to let me keep you safe!"

"Yes," she said. "But not as much as if you tried and failed to protect me. I know how much that would hurt. And I don't want you to be in that kind of pain. So just let them get me and move on. You can find another best friend. You can't save me this time and you should know that by now."

"It wouldn't be the same," L said. "I don't want another best friend, I just want you! YOU are my best friend, and I don't want anyone else to try and fill that spot because it's taken and that wouldn't change if you were dead. You'd still be my best friend."

"The fact that you wouldn't try and make a new best friend just makes you seem like you depend on me," she observed calmly, "which is not healthy and needs to be fixed. It's even worse that you're dependent on someone like me. I'm unhealthy enough on my own, I don't want to make you believe that I'm ok how I am because we both know that it's total bullshit."

"Don't swear," he muttered. "And that's irrelevant because I think that you're perfectly fine exactly how you are." He looked into her eyes and saw that she was almost crying. "Please don't cry," he said gently, moving to the side of her bed and kneeling. He grabbed one of her hands carefully and looked at it while he tried to find a way to convince her to come with him to New York City.

"I'm not coming with you," she said firmly, looking at him. Her eyes were completely focused for once. "I'm just going to let them take me and you can't do anything to stop me." L sighed and dropped her hand.

"I was afraid you'd say that," he said while standing up. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a tiny syringe. "I don't want to do this, but you're leaving me no choice." He pushed the needle into her arm and watched as her eyes started to droop.

"Asshole," she slurred before closing her eyes completely. L sighed and picked her up, and walked out the door. Watari sighed when he saw L carrying K to the jet.

"She is not going to be happy," Watari said wearily. "Be prepared for when she wakes up."

"All right," L said quietly, setting her down in one of the seats and fastening the seatbelt. He sat down and fastened his own and pulled out his laptop from the bag under his seat.

He couldn't stop staring at her sleeping form, she looked so peaceful and innocent. It was so unlike her when she was awake, and yet so similar because it was still her. Work wouldn't be done while she was lying there, dreaming about whatever her imagination came up with.

_In her dream, she could hear agonized moans of people and smell the rotting of corpses. The room she was in was foggy, so she couldn't see anywhere around her. There was also a weird distortion of light, which she realized was blood smeared on whatever light source was in the room. This was not going to be a very pleasant dream, she thought. Though when are they ever?_

_ "K," a ghostly whisper echoed around her, its presence was menacing and she shivered involuntarily. "K," it echoed again._

_ "Who's there?" She whimpered pitifully. She scanned the room quickly, though she knew it was no use, the visibility was about an inch in every direction._

_ "K," the voice echoed again, joined by two other voices that were just as menacing as the first. She whimpered and cold laughter followed._

_ "Go away," she muttered. She put her hands over her ears to try to block off the sound, but the laughter still bounced around the room. That was when K realized that the voices were coming from her head, not the room. "Get out of my head! You're not real, you can't be."_

_ "We're very real," the voices said coldly. "You can't block us out. We're part of you."_

_ "No," she whimpered. "This can't be true, I'm not crazy. This is just a dream, right?"_

_ "Maybe, maybe not," the voices sneered. "Maybe this is just a warning of what to come, girl. You're going to die, and we'll be the ones to kill you."_

_ "Who are you?" she yelled, scrunching her eyes closed and pulling at her hair._

_ "You know exactly who we are," one of the voices said, B, her unconscious mind just figured out. "And I can't wait to kill you. Poor Lawli will be so distraught to see what I leave behind for him."_

_ "B," she said grimly. "I never thought that you would share the kill with people like my parents. They only want my money, that's all they've ever wanted from me was the money that I've accumulated through the years to live off of."_

_ "Well that's because you're a useless bitch otherwise," her father growled. "What point is having a child if they suck the life out of you?"_

_ "If you felt that way, why didn't you just abort?" K sneered. "It would have been so much cheaper."_

_ "Perhaps," her mother said. "But we figured that we would make you useful somehow. Be grateful that you were somewhat intelligent or we would have sold you to someone. Your life could have been worse."_

_ The dream changed. She was chained to a hard surface, blood running from a gaping wound in her abdomen, her knees bent at weird angles, and her left shoulder had a gaping hole that was the same size as the one in her abdomen. She could also feel her back sticking to the surface, but she didn't know what was causing that. Somehow she wasn't in immense amounts of pain, but realization struck, she was sleeping._

_ She heard laughter on both sides of her, all of it terrifying. She wanted to wake up, but she couldn't. Damn L and his sedative, she was stuck in this nightmare until it wore off. She took a deep breath and steeled her nerves._

_ "B, you bloody bastard," she said, her English accent especially thick. "You'll never get away with this. Even if I die, L will catch you and kill you so fast you won't know what's coming. And as for you, mum and dad, you'll be sent to a mental institution in an undisclosed location where your 'treatment' will be agonizing. Good luck with your plans when you're too afraid to leave your little cot."_

_ All of them laughed, not believing what she said. "You really think Lawli will be able to function without you?" B asked. "He's gone soft since he met you. He doesn't stand a chance."_

_ "He has successors that can take over if necessary," K ground out. "They'll kill you without a second thought."_

_ "If they can catch us," her mother sneered. "Your cousin, Mail, will never be able to get over the trauma of losing his parents and then you. And after you're gone we'll take care of his precious Mihael and Nate. He'll be useless without them."_

_ The dream dimmed suddenly, and she realized she was waking up. What a nightmare she was having. Luckily it was coming to an end, for now._

K stirred, causing L to look up at the sudden movement. She was muttering in some strange mix of English, French, and German, so L was having a hard time following what she was saying. What he caught wasn't good, though.

"K," L said quietly, causing her to stir and mutter something about Matt, Mello, and Near. "K," he said louder, causing her to groan.

"What did you give me?" she murmured groggily. "Whatever it was, I don't appreciate it."

"Sorry," he said unapologetically. "It was the only way I would be able to get you onto the plane and into New York City. Did you sleep well?"

"No," she muttered. "I had the usual nightmares. The only difference is that I was stuck in them and had no control over them. I couldn't wake up."

"Now I am sorry," he said. She waved him off and sat up in her plane seat.

"I would have had them anyways," she said dismissively. "There's nothing you could have done about them. It's not your fault, L."

"I know," he said. "I still feel guilty. I should have just given you one of your sleeping pills and anti anxiety."

"I wouldn't have swallowed them," she said quietly. "But you still shouldn't have forced me onto a plane. I don't want to go to New York, he's probably hiding out here with my parents and we'd never know because of the ridiculous amount of people that reside in the city and their ability to blend into a crowd, especially B."

"If I remember correctly you are quite talented at blending into the crowd," L said blandly. "Do I have to bring up the case in Paris that you went undercover as a rich boarding school student? Or the one in Germany? Or any of the others?"

"Ugh, no," she muttered, blushing at the compliment. "But those had less intelligent criminals. B is as smart as us, and with my parents it's a real risk. They know us well enough to predict some of our movements. B will know that we'll choose a big city, my parents know how to lure me into their traps, and when they do, I'll be as good as dead."

"They won't catch us," L growled fiercely, surprising K. "You and I will catch them and we will come home safely. I promise to protect you, Watari will as well."

"Don't make a promise you can't keep," K muttered. L glared at her. "What? You might not be able to keep this one. B is ruthless and has a way of getting ahead of you for a very short amount of time. And that short amount of time costs lives and you know it. I'm sorry L, but it's true and you know it."

"I won't let him get ahead of me," L said, determined. "I know how he thinks, and I know he won't try anything in the open because he can't get a good getaway in this kind of city."

"I need a cigarette," K muttered, her hand shaking. "I can't deal with this shit. This is too much. You should have let me stay behind so they could just kill me. My parents would do it quickly if I gave them my bank codes."

L took a pack out of his pocket reluctantly and handed it to her with a slightly disappointed look on his face. "I wish you hadn't picked up this habit from Matt."

"Would you rather I pick up someone else's cocaine habit, or a heroin addiction?" she asked, lighting the cigarette expertly and taking a long drag. She exhaled slowly and sighed in what could only be described as contentment, though that was not what she was feeling.

"No," L muttered. "I just wish you would have chosen something that didn't smell as repulsive."

"It's not like I smoke as much as Matt," she said, taking another drag. "It's only when I'm having trouble forming coherent sentences and I start shaking. Otherwise I just pop pills and drink caffeine to stay awake."

"Maybe you shouldn't drink so much coffee," L suggested. She shrugged him off and smoked quietly for a few minutes before putting out the cigarette and putting it in the ashtray L provided.

"Well I'd drink some liquor but that interferes with my medications in a bad way," she said. "Trust me, I've tried it and I hallucinated and threw up a lot. Poor Matt had to take care of me."

"Are the medications working at all?" L asked sadly. She shrugged.

"Kind of," she said. "But not as much as they should, I imagine. But any stronger of a dose would make it hard to work, and that's all I really have. I can't sit around in a daze, so I'm not on the recommended dosage."

"Well you should go on the recommended dosage, even if it puts you in a fog," L said. "You're too stressed out to do work anyways."

"You don't understand," she said quietly. "I don't feel like myself on the normal dose. I feel like I live in a dream. It's kind of like floating in a half-conscious state all the time, just floating through the world like pollen on the wind. I can't do that, it's not a good thing to go through every day. Believe me, for a while I was on the normal dose and I didn't function. Matt said I was like zombie, and he was so scared that something was wrong, or that I was overdosing. But the doctor said that the medication was supposed to make me like that."

L frowned. "Why didn't you tell me?" he asked her quietly, his eyes looking directly into hers. She shrugged and rolled her shoulders, trying to get rid of some of the grogginess.

"Because I figured it wasn't that big of a deal," she said, staring right back at him with a blank stare. "I don't want to live like this, but I can't call what I was like before living at all."

"So what are you saying?" he asked her, his brows furrowed slightly in agitation. "Do you want to die?"

"Yes," she said honestly, completely calm. "The only reason I'm staying alive right now is for you and Matt. If you weren't in my life, I'd probably be dead now because this is a miserable existence for me. But you make it almost worth living, if that makes you feel any better."

"It really doesn't," he said sadly. "If I had known you felt this way I would have stayed around more often. Does Matt know how you feel?"

"Of course he does," she replied sharply. "This is Matt we're talking about. He reads people like a book. Though he has a harder time reading you and I."

"You let your guard down, didn't you?" L asked. K sighed and rand a hand through her hair.

"Yeah," she said tiredly. "But it was completely accidental. I was working on a case that turned out to have been a setup by B, and I had a major panic attack. It was so bad that I was placed in the medical wing of the school and Matt stayed with me the whole time, catching everything I said awake and asleep. I can't control my subconscious. He also was observing me because you had him report major changes in behavior and such."

"I remember that," L said vaguely. "But from what he told me he didn't completely understand what you were feeling or saying. He said that you were being cryptic and you kept switching languages at awkward parts of sentences without knowing. One of the things he said you were doing was you were having a conversation with him in German, but you switched to English, and then to Spanish without so much as a warning. And then you went to French. He asked you about it later and you didn't know what he was talking about."

"I don't remember any of this," K muttered. "I think I was still out of it, and the medications they had me on complicated things."

"I see," L muttered. "You shouldn't be doing cases then. If you can't keep your composure enough to keep your secrets, then I will not allow you to work on any more cases."

"I'd like to see you try," she said angrily. "I'll do what I want, when I want. You're not the boss of me and you know perfectly well what I am capable of when I am determined to do something."

"I have more resources than you will ever hope to," L said. "I can keep you from doing anything if I wanted to. Don't test me, K, you'll lose." K glared at him before turning on her laptop and working on minor cases to take up some time.

Watari sighed from the cockpit; they always had to bicker like small children because one always had to be right. Good thing they were landing in New York, or else he would slap them both, though it wouldn't really do any good because K would probably just start crying and L would glare at Watari and try to kick him, and likely he would succeed. Watari did not want to be kicked by L, or anyone with that much martial arts training.

When the plane landed they immediately put everything into the car Watari had set up. K and L loaded their laptops into the back seat of the car so they could work as much as possible before having to load everything into the apartment.

"This is where I leave you," Watari said. "I have to monitor the school for a while. Your living arrangements have been set up according to both of your preferences. I will check in with you by phone and e-mail multiple times a day and through surveillance cameras placed throughout the house. I will come and check in at a random time every week."

"Understood," K and L said in unison, giving Watari mock salutes to try and ease the building tension that they were all feeling. Watari gave a weak smile in return before walking back to the jet.

"Take care of each other," he called behind him before the stairs went up and the door closed.

K stood next to L and held his hand, her own shaking and cold. He gave her hand a comforting squeeze before leading her to the car. They drove off to their new hideout, both silently praying for a safe return home. But of course God doesn't answer to the nonbelievers, as they had both come to learn.


End file.
